Hi , first post , nice to meet you all !
After being a while looking up for some swing arm configuration over many site i decide to show you my work wondering if my setup enough strong. nothing full welded so i can dissemble it before making a bad move.

im used to speak french so ill try my best to describe this set up. mainly a 1 5/8 tubing 3/6 wall ( ~ L.20 inch ) welded on a pivot point ( L. 4 inch ) which got 2 radial bearing each side. fully machined wheel shaft welded on a 4.5in triangle. ( easier to change on a shaft break ) main frame is 1 1/4 tubing. everything work fine when wheel goes up and down. but is it gonna be able to handle side movement effect ?

Me and my friend building a side car and plan to make a trip from Quebec to B.C passing trough USA . We making a hybrid version of a sidecar cross and a sidecar . i mean we wanna be able to do track and and make road too ;) so far we been working on the frame. a roughly 2 more day and its gonna be the test run. ( still need 2 other attach and a footstep ) here a picture mounted on a XR650.

I'm thinking what you are talking about is the upper connections to the bike? What I see so far looks very nice. Obviously you have access to some good machine tools and skills. My only question would be the size of the axle. As it is supporting the wheel from only one side it needs a bigger axle than a bike where it has support on both sides.

Also might want to look into putting a motor in the bike, B.C. is a long way to push an outfit!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nano0k

Me and my friend building a side car and plan to make a trip from Quebec to B.C passing trough USA .

It looks as though a hard left turn would cause the sidecar wheel to toe out, due to the axle arm flex, without a lateral control arm. By axle arm, I mean the up and down arm the axle is attached to, if that helps.

Hello
I'm not afraid your swing arm will bend. The tube won't bent. Just as long as you install an reinforcement in the corner. I'm more afraid of the wheel axle. It looks like a standard front axle mounted on one side. The standard front axle is not sturdy enough. You need an axle of about 20mm, about 0.80".
I also don't understand why the pivot of the swing arm is higher than the sidecar frame?
Third point, the rear mounting looks solid. But the front mounting point looks as if it is welded on a crash bar.

After a good day of work we finally completed our upper connection and getting back motor in place. to respond to halflive whell shaft is 17 mm dia , why the pivot of the swing arm is higher than the sidecar frame? maybe esthetic , maybe cause we wanted to have same clearance from bike frame vs side car frame. good question.

we going to give test run monday , trying to break our swing arm and axle . gonna be fun ! thx to all for feedback and tips we appreciate

here a close view of the Axle. After the test we might rework all swing arm system . mabey thnking of cloning XR650 arm or a custom build 30mm axle whit the possiblity to add a drive shaft on it. working on a Inventor 3D plan to show how it fill fit. stay tuned :)

and for the crash bar : yes it is , but imo i dont think a 5 point grade 8 bolt on gonna break. the frame gonna twist/break before bolt cut off.

Have you looked at the idea of finding different wheel bearings with larger I.D.? Possibly changing from ball bearings to tapered rollers, they sometimes are available with larger I.D. while still using the same O.D.. 17mm axle does seem a little small.

Have you looked at the idea of finding different wheel bearings with larger I.D.? Possibly changing from ball bearings to tapered rollers, they sometimes are available with larger I.D. while still using the same O.D.. 17mm axle does seem a little small.

The standard front wheel bearing on a XR650 is a 6003 - 2RS . 35mm OD 17mm I.D . i tried to look on Mcmaster and SKF for a needle . sound like there is no bearing suited for my job. so im thinking about 3 option :